Speaker for 2021 ndla conference announced!

Exciting news!!! The 2021 NDLA Conference Planning Committee  just BOOKED Julia Torres for this year’s NDLA Annual Conference.  Julia will be hosting not only Pre-Conference Workshop BUT a Break Out Session AND will be our lunch speaker!!!

We are finalizing the rest of our speakers so stay tuned for more announcements for this year’s NDLA Annual Conference October 6-8 in Grand Forks!

JULIA E. TORRES is a veteran language arts teacher and librarian in Denver Public schools.  As a teacher/activist committed to education as a practice of freedom, her practice is grounded in the work of empowering students to use Language Arts to fuel resistance and positive social transformation. Julia has been awarded the 2020 NCTE Colorado Affiliate Teacher of Excellence award chosen as a 2020 Library Journal Mover and Shaker, and serves educators as a member of the ALAN (Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of NCTE) Board of Directors. Julia facilitates workshops and professional conversations about anti-bias/anti-racist education, social justice, and culturally sustaining pedagogies in Language Arts, as well as digital literacy and librarianship. Her work has been featured in several publications including NCTE’s Council Chronicle, NPR, AlJazeera’s The Stream, PBS Education, KQED’s MindShift, NY Times Learning Network, The Chicago Tribune, ASCD’s Education Update, Rethinking Schools, School Library Journal, and many more.

North Dakota Legislation Season in FulL sWING!

The NDLA Legislative Committee wants to remind you that it has never been easier to be a part of the North Dakota Legislative Session. Not only can you submit testimony in writing and by video, but they’ve even created a video to show you HOW to do this (check it out here).

Not ready to share your thoughts, but kind of want to know what happens at the State Capitol? You can stream hearings and more here or go back and watch it later. To watch later, visit the State Legislature page and click on “Video” across the top. It will take you to the list of hearings for that day. You can either click on one that is “In Progress” to watch it live or “Adjourned” to watch if after it ends. If the hearing was on a different date, you can click on the calendar. If you need help, you can reach out to State Librarian Mary Soucie at [email protected] or (701)328-4654.

There is a lot going on in Bismarck and it impacts all of us as librarians and North Dakota citizens so we should all pay attention. Whether you keep updated for yourself or to keep your patrons updated, 2021 is the year to do it!

Want to know about a particular bill? It’s easy peasy, simply visit the State Legislature Assembly page mentioned above and type the bill number in the search box at the upper right hand corner of the page. You can also search by topic but that will bring back all bills from all time related to the topic. You can review the attached Bill Tracker User Manual, but overall you just search for the bill you’re looking for.

Overall, lots of useful information can be found at https://www.legis.nd.gov/assembly/67-2021/regular  so check it out when you have some time!

Review Possible Bylaws and constitution Changes

The NDLA Executive committee is voting on proposed changed to the bylaws and constitution.  To see the proposed changes to the bylaws, click here, and to see the proposed changes to the constitution click here. 

Creation of New COmmittee

On January 14th, 2021, NDLA President Amy Soma announced that she has created a new committee.  The Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee will focus on the ongoing work of implementing the resolution passed by NDLA members at the 2020 annual meeting regarding diversity and inclusion. Carmen Redding has been appointed chair of this committee.  If any NDLA members are interested in working on this committee, they are advised to contact Carmen at this address.